Customer Reviews

Way of Tea: The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking

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The Way Of Tea is the flip side to a book like "The New Tea Book" -- it goes in depth on a number of subjects and has information tea connoisseurs may not have known. For those who are mainly familiar with information about tea presented from an Indian standpoint, this enhance your knowledge, as it's more about the teas of China.

One of the first things this book covers in great detail is the history and production of tea. Its history starts in 2700 BC and goes up through modern day -- but don't be afraid, it's not like reading a textbook. It's still light and quick read with a lot of great information.

Then there's a good section on the making of teas and varieties of teas. I learned a lot about the preparation of types of teas -- that is, how they're made before they get to you. There's also a lengthy discussion on the proper preparation of teas, and how to serve them. This includes a discussion and series of photos on the gongfu method of tea preparation and serving.

Additionally, there's a series of homeopathic style recipies for tea as various cures. While some of these may be effective due to the placebo effect, I have tried some of these preparations for my girlfriend when she's sick and she said she felt a little better soon afterwards (without me explaining what I was doing). While it's not to be taken as evidence of effectiveness, it may work a bit. Be aware that if you can't get to a place that specializes in Asian foods, though, you may not be able to do many of the recipes.

In any case, this is a great book and almost anyone can learn from it.

The Way of Tea is a very nice primer about, as it states, "the sublime art of oriental tea drinking". One aspect that differentiates this book from many other books about tea, is that it is written from the Chinese viewpoint. Other books I've read mention China's role in tea history, but are not actually written from the Chinese viewpoint. This book fills that gap nicely. It is written in a simple and straightforward format, covering an amazing amount of information in comparably few words. It seems to be written with the purpose of the westerner gaining understanding. I borrowed this book to read, and was so delighted with it, that I decided to purchase it, as it is not only interesting but makes a handy reference for several tea topics. This book now has a spot on my cookbook shelf.

Master Lam gives a brief history of tea and tea drinking customs in China, and also a bit about the spread of tea outside China. He writes about tea varieties, picking and processing. Master Lam details each type of tea, names some special teas from each category, and includes a few pictures of brews and leaves. He gives advice about selecting your teapots and storing tea. I found the advice for selecting teapots to be particularly useful. It helped me to eliminate poor quality pots from consideration. That alone was worth more than the price of the book. You learn such things as how to judge your water and make/serve tea. There is a full section devoted to step by step instruction on the Kung Fu (gongfu) tea ceremony - well presented in detail with pictures of each step. There is also a chapter about healing teas with simple recipes included. For example, teas to help with high blood pressure, common cold, etc.

Woven throughout the text are brief historical, folk, or anecdotal tidbits as the basis for various customs/procedures. Not only does this make for a more amusing read, but it also provides a fuller understanding of why something is done or why it is so named, and a tiny peek into Chinese culture.

This book is a quick read - it is not filled out with useless information nor indepth analysis. Master Lam has given this topic much thought, and presented the most useful information for daily practice. The pictures in the history portion are primarily from art. The graphics presented in the rest of the book are actual pictures of items/processes mentioned in the text. The photos are ordinary (not some coffee table extravaganza) - but they are well selected to support the text. If you are interested in the world of Chinese tea, you may want to tickle your mind with this book as a very nice introduction to "the sublime art of ORIENTAL tea drinking".

Reading the book with a trained eye, it becomes apparent that the writer did not actually intimately know tea at the time of writing the book.

What he has done is to expertly pick information from other sources and blend it together. Mostly this has worked well and the information is actually accurate. However, many times the information is vague, and some of it is just plain wrong. The latter is particularly damning as a reader not already versed in tea cannot tell when this happens.

For example, it seems the author has read from one source that the chinese group tea into six color classes: white, yellow, green, light green, red and black. He then goes on to discuss these classes. Unfortunately, he has got light green and black just plain wrong. In the first place, light green teas are more commonly known as semi-fermented, blue-green teas or oolongs. However, the author claims that "Oolong" is just a particular instance of a "light green" tea, on the same level as for example "Tie Guan Yin". Apparently the author didn't find much information on Chinese black teas (in reality post-fermented dark teas such as Pu Erh, which the author categorizes as green) as little is said of them, but of the two examples he cites one is actually a tisane, not from the Camellia Sinensis plant at all and the other is a red tea. Which brings to mind the odd choice of examples of red teas, which suddenly jump from the otherwise used China to India with Darjeeling and Nilgiri as examples.

Further diminishing the usefulness of the book is the choice of romanization style for the Chinese teas and terms. Being greeted with teas such as T'ieh Kuan-yin, and Chün Shan Yin Chin, one wanting to try them may run into trouble because virtually every seller romanizes them as Tie Guan Yin and Yun Shan Yin Zhen.

The book contains very interesting folklores related to Asian teas and introduced some of the author's favorites. Kam gives a brief introduction to few of the finest teas in the world, and much on the popular teas. Then an interesting tea ceremony. Although at some points I don't agree with the author, I do recommend this book to whoever interested in teas. A pleasure to read.

First: this is NOT a tea encyclopedia or even a true tea reference book. It does not try and deceive people into thinking it is. The title is 'The Way of Tea' and if you are a fan of Taoism then you understand the concept for this book.

The book is glossy, well made, and very pretty to look at. The pictures are of high quality. The first section is a brief history of tea. What I found interesting was the inclusion of many Chinese folk tales. These tales tell of the origin of tea as well as the origin of the names of many of the popular and high quality teas (such as Dragonwell or Ti Kuan Yin). These mythological stories are fun and give a little romance to the naming and style of teas. These tales also tell of the mysterious medicinal properties associated with tea throughout ancient China.

The book definitely focuses on the Chinese legend and styles of tea. There is an interesting section describing the Kung Fu (actually Gong-Fu, bad translation there) style of serving tea. For anyone such as myself, this is at first a daunting way of serving tea and the author includes 9 pages with large and descriptive pictures. After a couple of trial runs, this style of serving becomes second nature, and a very nice way to share tea with guests.

Of course the author discusses several styles of serving, as well as a variety of teapots, explaining why some materials are better than others. He even includes a short section on water! (which is very important for tea making, probably more important than anything except the type and quality of the tea being used).

Suffice to say, everything is presented in an easy to read, well flowing format. I read the entire book cover to cover in just around an hour. Afterwards, I immediately brewed myself a pot of rock oolong to enjoy and contemplate. Not the most informative, but a good addition to any beverage library.

Of note: The book is NOT inaccurate but rather badly translated. Oolong is misprinted as 'light green tea' for example. And red tea is actually a style considered by many Asians, though the western world often lumps most red tea with black tea, reserving the red tea designation for the terrible stuff used to brew iced tea in chain restaurants.

The book was in good condition and arrived quick enough. I were happy to get it, had been reading it on a tea shop.

This book lays out the main categories of tea, history, and important cultural tea ceremonies. A must-have for the Kung Fu tea ceremony.

I was very pleased the The Way of Tea. I have learned so much from the history and overview. I had the pleasure of taking a tea class from a great new spot in NYC (Radiance Tea) and it was nice to know a little going in. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about the art of tea drinking.